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False Creek

Tea And Two Slices: New Housing & First Dibs on Olympic Village

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by Sean Orr | 1,006 new units for Vancouver’s homeless. Yes. Fucking yes. Also, Mining magnate donates $5-million for housing. I mean, I could say that doesn’t excuse the fact that we subsidize one of the most destructive industrial practices on the planet, but I’m not going to.

Buuuuuuut then we go and do something like this: Longtime program for disabled adults dealt death blow.

Buuuuuut then we live in the land of the lotus and we care not for those who toil! Police officers, firefighters, paramedics, nurses and/or teachers apply for subsidised Olympic village housing. They can’t even afford to live in this livable city because we value the people who make quick bucks flipping real estate over the people who protect us.

Well, fuck me with an Ed Hardy condom on, how did I miss this? 917 Main rises from the Cobalt’s ashes.

Hipster Designer‘s back. I’m not sure if this is supposed to make me mad or whatever, but I think it’s pretty great.

There are 9 comments

  1. Annual Salaries

    Effective January 2009:

    Probationary Constable – $54,336
    4th Class Constable (after 1 year) – $58,212
    3rd Class Constable (after 2 years) – $62,088
    2nd Class Constable (after 3 years) – $69,852
    1st Class Constable (after 4 years) – $77,616
    Salary Levels for 1st Class Constable

    after 10 years – $81,497
    after 15 years – $85,378
    after 20 years – $89,258

    Above is from vancouver.ca. Cops in Vancouver are hardly working poor.

  2. Salary
    ???? $48,504 – $68,244 Fire Fighter annually
    ???? $76,428 – $100,044 Fire Fighter Officer annually

    Vancouver firefighter salaries.

  4. Well said George. I remember the day my oldest son came home from Kindergarten and told me how underpaid his teacher was. The imprinting starts early. Of course at the time I owned a deli in Maple Ridge so we were rolling in coin.

  5. Well, that sounds like a fair wage for cops (I can’t believe I’m defending the vpd) but this is the most expensive place in the world to live. Surely, they can afford to live and support a family east of Main only. Besides, we barely build housing for familys in the downtown core. Creating a housing shortage, in place with a land shortage, driving up prices, leading people to gamble on these low security mortgages. Teachers, nurses, etc. were included in the article. The point is, our self-obsessed image of young, sexy, heatlh-concious, earth-friendly, cappucino sipping, condo-dwelling, high-powered, world class city has led us to abandon the very people who built it.

  6. Sean. What’s the answer? Should we subsidise public servant’s mortgages so they can live in Coal Harbour and all of the professional peole will be forced to live in a Gulag?

    It’s the free enterprise system. People make money in locations around the world and choose to spend that money to live in the centre of our city. It’s indirectly what pays most of our salaries. How well do you think the restaurants and businesses that advertise here would do if the city was inhabited by cops, teachers and firemen?

  7. Yes of course! I advocate the exact opposite of what I am criticizing! How convenient! No, we should have preserved rental stock. We should have a housing trust. We should make family housing stock. We should tax investment rentals as business rentals. We should raise the minimum wage and institute a living wage (like the city of new westminster just did). We should restore welfare. We should have a national housing strategy. We should have support housing somewhere other than the DTES. We should have enough treatment beds. We should have a mental health czar.

    The businesses that advertise here would probably benefit immensely from a fortified housing stock. One that is not simply made of condo owners. This is not the model of sustainability we should aspire to, namely because it is not. We need renters, seniors, families, couples, students, artists, and professionals. I don’t really think in black and white like you do.

  8. Sean. That’s quite a laundry list. I don’t disagree with you, but who do you see implementing this? I don’t see things quite as black and white as you think but am realistic about what can be accomplished in this political climate.

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